7 SEPTEMBER 1867, Page 2

Mr. Dillwyn met his constituents at Swansea yesterday week, when

he explained rather confusedly his part in the celebrated Tea-Room meeting of last session, and took infinite credit to him- self for extracting from Colonel Taylor that statement as to the disposition of the Government towards Mr. Hibbert's amendment, which was afterwards disavowed by all the authorities appealed to, but is still assumed to have been trustworthy by Mr. Dillwyn. Some of Mr. Dillwyn's constituents did not appear as well satisfied as himself with the Tea-Room exploit, and at this point of his ex- planation he was interrupted by hisses. He concluded by explain- ing that he could not regard Mr. Gladstone as the Liberal leader, because he was not a good Liberal on important points of eccle- siastical policy. In short, Mr. Dillwyn seemed to think Mr. Glad- stone an inferior Liberal, who should be confined to budgets, and told, as Lord Palmerston told Mr. Cobden, not to go beyond his last. Lord Leigh wrote a very good letter to yesterday's Times in reply to this sneer of Mr. Dillwyn's. He points out that so far from Mr. Gladstone having exerted his influence solely to endanger the Bill, as Mr. Dillwyn's letter seems to imply, Mr. Gladstone's ten demands were all but one granted, and all needed to make the Bill tolerable to Liberals. Lord Leigh says not more than the truth when he asserts that " the leadership of Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons is indispensable to the future develop- ment of those financial, social, and political principles which ought to form the bond of union in the Liberal ranks."